1976 KZ400 D3 Grimey

Took a few glamour as the sun was getting low in the sky after a short ride last night for some carb tuning.









This is what I started with about 4 years ago.



Full build thread is at KTOF: kz400.createforumhosting.com/76-kz400-d3...ing-good-t16198.html

Nice looking bike. Is that a naked steel tank or is it painted?

Thanks davido. It's been a fun project and I've learned a lot (was my first bike) and have since added another KZ400 (1978 B1) to my collection and I'm always looking for more Kawasakis. KZ900s and 1000s are too far above my price point right now but the next two I'm pining for are a KZ750 twin and a GPz 750.

I stripped the tank and decided I liked the bare steel look so I shot it with a couple of coats of clear. Here is a pic after I first did it:



But I must have let some moisture get in before the clear or I just didn't do a very good job covering it, which is more likely, so a little surface rust has showed up in a few spots underneath the clear coat. I don't mind the vintage patina look for now but I may paint it eventually. I just haven't figured out a color or style that I want to commit to yet. Seems like I have a fear of commitment as this thing gets closer to done. I didn't mind cutting off tabs for airbox and other irreversible changes early on but now it's tougher. For instance I recently put the stock fender back on - I wanted to cut it down some but I couldn't decide exactly how much I wanted to cut off so I just put it back on whole.

Here's a pic that better shows how the tank looks now:

I recently swapped tanks to a new (to me) 1975 tank with a new repro gas cap. I liked the naked steel look but this just looks right. It now looks like a proper mid-70s Kawasaki. I practically stole the tank on Ebay - sorry and thanks if it was any of you all. The tank looks great in the pic but it has a few small scratches here and there, just minor stuff. But I think it's perfect for a nearly 40 year old motorcycle. It looks like someone recently re-cleared it - it has a lot of shine.



Other than a few odds and ends and regular maintenance I think I'm about done "building" (restoring/restomodding?) this bike after 4 years and way too much money. It's my first, I love it and I think I'll keep it forever - despite the lies I've told my wife about selling both bikes to fund the next one after I'm done with the scrambler. I'm sure the next one will be happy to join the herd.

Some day soon I'll post pics and details of the journey,

Looks great Grimey. The KZ400 is underappreciated but a really fun bike and IMHO one of the better looking ones.

HA, a see through bike. :lol: Just joking.



Reminds me of my 73 350 Honda. Me and that bike went everywhere. Went from it to the Z1. I kept it for a while, hated to sell an old friend. It didn't have a counter balancer and I've wondered if that made a difference or what? I was looking at bigger Hondas, the 500, then the 550 and 750 but my friends all had Z1's so I had to get one. Never looked back.
Steve

Thanks, Steve. I'm sure I'll move on and up eventually. The next two I'm keeping an eye out for are a KZ 750 twin (easy step up from the KZ400 - share a lot in design and even some parts) and a GPz 750. And of course I'd love to eventually get a 900/1000. I'm definitely a Kawasaki guy through and through (like my Dad used to be) but I wouldn't turn my nose up at a CB750 either - though I don't know if I could get used to the Green wire being ground! Currently I'm having fun getting riding experience and pushing that light little KZ400 through the country twisties.

I know a bunch of guys who have and love their CB 350s. That was also one of my Dad's first bikes - he was telling stories about it while restoring a '72 Triumph Bonneville in my shop over the winter.

Yes, it is a see-through bike but it's not just for looks (okay to be truthful it mostly is ). I shaved a lot of weight going to a small lithium-ion battery, relocating everything that needed to be kept and removing a bunch of brackets. And in the process there were a lot of upgrades too like a modern reg/rect combo, switching to a modern fuse block, swapped over the the ignition for the later KZ440 electronic ignition bits, etc (that's not everything I've done - just the stuff relating to the open triangle area). I've replaced every seal and bearing in this bike - the only thing I have not done yet is open up the engine but I'll probably have too sooner or later to fix the slight oil seepage around the heads. The leaks seem to be getting a little bit better though. When I first got it there would be a couple drips underneath it but lately it seems to just be confined to the front of the block being "wet". Maybe putting some miles on the old dog has helped some of those old gaskets out. And speaking of weight savings I really want to weigh the thing now to see how much I have shaved. Hopefully I'll get a chance this weekend.

Thanks again, gents.

A few more pics of the bike on the day I picked it up much to the chagrin of my dear wife. I thought it was beautiful (being my very first motorcycle) and something I could work with. She said it was a piece of junk - she was right. But not only was I looking for a bike to ride, something I could learn on, I was also looking for a project, a hobby.

It was cosmetically challenged, missing seat cover, a side cover and lots of other stuff but It ran... mostly. It was in much need of cleaning, which is why it earned its name Grimey. I think I spent two days cleaning build up oil and grease from everything. And I would soon learn that it needed a lot of maintenance stuff done too. Tires were old, carbs needed a lot of work, front brakes were sticking, threads on front axle were stripped (nut was just hanging on), most of the cables needed replaced, both clutch and brake levers needed replaced, coil was iffy, fuses looked like the originals that came with the bike. The only wear items that were in good shape and that I still haven't touched were the chain and sprockets.







After cleaning it up one of the first things I did was cover the seat. I found a long girl's black leather jacket, made of some nice thick leather with a lot of character, at the local Goodwill. I used that to cover the seat. I found that someone had already tried trimming down the stock foam a bit but did a poor job, it was pretty lumpy in places.



I also discovered the original owner's manual and warranty book in the comparment under the seat. Bonus!

Next step was some maintenance on the front forks. I drained the oil - it was the most horribly smelling thing I have ever experienced. It might have been the original that came with the bike. I replaced the seals and sliders and added a pair of gaiters. Luckily the forks were in good shape, just some slight pitting up around the headlight brackets but nothing anywhere that mattered.



I scored a pair of side covers and painted them green - the bike was going to be British Racing Green in satin



Hmm... turned out more John Deere green than British Racing Green.

I added the tail section of a later KZ400 because I thought it looked cool... at the time. I also sanded down the tank and found a huge dent in the right side filled with a lot of bondo. But it seemed okay for now.



I had the rotor drilled by a machinist friend



I swapped over to an aftermarket headlight bracket and lowered the headlight and gauges. PS - I have more pics of how the lower the gauges if anyone is interested, I've had a few people ask.



Gauges lowered a bit and bike has less than 15K miles on it. It looks bad but I'm finding that major parts are in pretty good shape.



Painted the tank green and added a white racing stripe. You can see the lumpy seat that I mentioned before in this pic.

It's alive! Well, almost. But it did get new tires, Shinko 712s and I painted the left and right hand controls. The rims cleaned up nicely and turned out to be in much better shape than I even hoped. Front fender and shocks cleaned up great too. It was starting to look like a real motorcycle. I could now ride it up and down my driveway and wait for the day when I took my MSFT course.



K&N filter and after running into my first electrical troubles (just a blown fuse) I replaced the stock fuse block with something more modern.



Added some farkle I removed not too long after.



Couple steps back to move forward. Carbs off to be cleaned again and pipes off to cut the stock mufflers off for replacements. A PO had drilled out the stock mufflers and sprayed everything flat black to cover years of wear. They were way too loud and looked bad.



After swapping out coil, lubing up advancer, cleaning the carbs multiple times I finally figured out why the bike had a hard time starting, wouldn't rev past 4K and smelled like it was running really, really rich. The rubber plugs to cover the pilot jets were missing.



I could not find stock replacements but the rubber pilot hole plugs for a GS1000/1100 work well enough though they do need trimmed down a little to fit. I can go find the part number if anyone needs it - I still have a couple in my parts bin.

Swapped over to a set of superbike bars, added some Oury grips, and put on a pair of Emgo megaphone mufflers. I also discovered that even though the headers had been painted flat black they were not too bad underneath the paint. There were a few little spots of rust but they cleaned up well enough and after the scuffing to remove the paint look more like brushed stainless than chrome.



But there's an issue that's about to change things up. See the right side of the gas tank where it looks like the paint is bubbling? Remember the big dent that I mentioned in the tank with all the bondo? Yeah, not only was there a dent but a couple pinholes or two that is causing the bondo to come apart.

But first let's swap out the points for the electronic ignition from the later (81+) 440s. I'm sure points are great, lots of guys say they are but by the time I started working on cars (mid 80s) points were replaced by HEI and to me they seemed like magic. Doing the swap is really as simple as bolting on the parts and knowing where to splice in the wires once you understand the system.

[/url]

I scored a really nice thank that was clean inside and out on Craigslist. The paint on it was really rough and I had to strip it though. I liked the raw steel look and just covered it with a couple layers of clear to keep away the rust. Now the green accessories didn't look very good so I painted the headlight bucket and the side covers satin black. And I realized the error in my ways with the tail piece. I removed it and put the old duck-billed fender back on.



Ugh, that lumpy seat though. I had to fix it. I took the seat cover back off and did some sanding and shaping. Much better. Not professional but much better.



I went through several iterations of rear turn signals and tail lights.

I learned about these Chinese rectifiers from Captain Awesome, I believe, over on the KZ400 forum (Kawasaki Twins Owners Forum). I didn't need to replace mine but I thought it would be nice to have a spare.



I didn't like the big bulky old fender since this bike was starting to look light and sleek. I found an old '76 Honda front fender that had a little bit of damage to a part that I wouldn't need, cut it in half and replaced my rear fender with it. Much nicer. I also found a pair of MAC slipon mufflers for the KZ440 at a clearance price that I couldn't resist. The new mufflers mounted up great and sounded great compared to the Emgo megaphones.



The first cut hurts the most. The rear of the frame with the fender supports is ugly, It had to go. This was the first time I permanently removed anything. It looks much cleaner now.



I found a new pair of shocks to replace the 35-year-old stock ones. They looked perfect too. They are a pair of 11.9", if I remember correctly, Emgo shocks that are a Girling reproduction. I have not seen them around since I bought that pair - who knows, they may have been the last pair on earth for all I know. With the rear lowered about 1/2 to 1 inch I pulled the forks up through the top triple about the same amount. The bike is not slammed but it is visually considerably lower. Not sure when but at some point I changed from the stock mirrors to bar end mirrors too. And I lowered the gauges more. I like the flatter look the front of the bike has now.



By this time, about a year after I bought it, the bike was looking fantastic and running really well. I was starting to trust it more and taking it on short trips through town and on longer rides on our back country roads.

That would change soon though. I probably should have stopped here and been happy. Many times I wish I would have. Not saying that I'm not happy now, I'm ecstatic, I love my bike. And if I had stopped then I wouldn't have experienced and learned the things that were to come. But that was a really good looking bike with the bare steel tank and the black side covers giving the bike a little bulkiness that just looks good. Too bad it's not around any more.

Wow, I was amazed to read at the end the bike went through all those changes in a year. Looks awesome!

I'd be interested to see the pics of lowering the gauges if you have them handy, it does make the front look sleeker,